This online edition has been derived from a copy of The North American Indian held by the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library. Northwestern University Library is not aware of any current U.S. copyright or other restrictions to the use of the original work.

The contents of this site are provided for educational, personal, and non-commercial use, provided that the site is properly credited.

Sample credit line:
Northwestern University Library, Edward S. Curtis's "The North American Indian," 2003.
http://digital.library.northwestern.edu/curtis/

Written request for permission is required for any publication, distribution, or transmission of data, images or text presented on this web site, beyond that allowed by fair use.

Medium resolution images of plates and text pages for educational and personal use: download or print from site and credit the source.

High Resolution images for publication, distribution or transmission: request through the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library.

Copies of original Curtis photographs, including many not published in The North American Indian, can be ordered from the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

Fine arts reproductions and original prints are available from sources listed below.
o The Cardozo Gallery
o The Curtis Collection
o Edward S. Curtis Gallery
o Flury & Company

Northwestern University does not have any affiliation with these providers. Links are offered as a courtesy; no endorsement of any product or service is intended.

User tips

Getting started

Tables of Contents

Page View

Search Page

Tips on finding images

Tips on finding tribal information

Printing and downloading

Tables of Contents

Expand and collapse buttons (Plus and minus signs)

By clicking the expand button (plus sign) next to a volume title, or selecting a volume number at the top of the screen, you can browse a list of chapters and sub-chapters. You can display contents for several volumes at once. Close each list by clicking the collapse button. Close all lists at once by clicking the Table of Contents bar at the top of the screen.

You can browse lists of image titles by clicking the buttons next to Illustrations (for plates in a bound volume) or Portfolio (for the large accompanying plates). If you click on the word Illustrations, you will go directly to a facsimile of Curtis’s illustrations list at the front of the volume.

Page View

View selector

You can limit page viewing to illustrations only, or text only, by selecting from a pull-down view selector menu. Wait for your selected view to appear before turning to another page.

Arrows

You can go to the beginning or end of a volume by clicking the outer arrows at the top or bottom of each screen.

When you reach the last page of volume text, you can turn to the portfolio plates by clicking the right inner arrow.

Place indicators

What page are you viewing? The page and volume numbers appear at the top of the screen, while the scan numbers (e.g. 13 of 304) appear in the lower left margin.

View uncorrected OCR

You can read a machine-converted version of the text for any page by clicking the link in the lower right margin of the screen. That will take you to all the searchable text for a volume. You can cut and paste, save or print any portion of this text. But note that it is “uncorrected OCR”, meaning some spelling errors remain from machine transcription, especially for diacritics. To return to the page image view, click any page link (e.g. “view image of page 159”).

Go to page or plate

See under Search.

Search Page

When you perform a keyword search you are searching all text, including image titles and captions. Remember you are searching uncorrected OCR, created electronically with approximately 99% accuracy. The text contains occasional errors (generally in spelling and interpretation of diacritics).

Don’t include diacritics in search terms. Don’t use punctuation (e.g. cliff dwellers not cliff-dwellers). You can use either upper or lower case. You can truncate words by using % (e.g. myth% = myth; myths; mythology; mythological).

Retrieved search terms are not highlighted on the displayed Curtis pages.

You can search a phrase or compound word by entering the sequence of words: burden basket; Coyote Chant. To search for combinations of words use “and” (a Boolean operator): buffalo and hunt. To search synonymous or alternative words use “or”: house or dwelling. Searching synonyms is important because you are not searching controlled vocabulary (subject headings with cross references); you will find all of these words in Curtis’s text--house, home and dwelling; maiden and girl.

If you search broad topics like myths, ceremonies, population, and vocabulary you will find many results, including references to Curtis’s original volume index pages, where you can see a more detailed topical break-down. You can also search the text for specific terms, names and places, such as: deerskin; horses; tipi; cactus; Geronimo; South Dakota; Taos, etc.

On the Library of Congress site, Edward S. Curtis’s The North American Indian: Photographic Images, you can browse or search subject headings assigned to the 722 large plates, featuring customs, clothing, artifacts and social roles.

Go to page or plate

From the Search page you can go directly to a particular volume and page number, or to an illustration facing any numbered page (illustration pages are not numbered). You can also go directly to a portfolio plate number (the 772 large plates are numbered consecutively, not by volume).

Tips on finding images

• On the Search page, use .
• On the Search page, search image titles and captions, which are included in any keyword search.